Sapientia
Sapientia, the General of Father Balder and Cardinal Virtue of Prudence and Controller of Seas, is an enemy boss in Bayonetta, the last Auditio seeking to recover the Left Eye of the World and revive Jubileus, The Creator. Hierarchy of Laguna Artists have often depicted the Cardinal Virtue of Prudence, Sapientia, as a marine animal roaming the depths of the seas. This is likely due to the human disposition to characterize the sea as the source of all life, a veritable fountain of prudence and wisdom. It is also thought that Sapientia is responsible for the rise and fall of the tides, and natural phenomena such as tsunamis. The grand idea that the living seas could be nothing other than the Divine will at work is actually evidence of Sapientia's narcissism, even amongst Cardinal Virtues. When a man born as a slave led his people to freedom from ruling oppression, it is said that it was only Sapientia's favor that parted the seas and allowed for their escape. Appearances Sapientia is first seen accompanying Jeanne in her confrontation with Bayonetta on a plane which had captured Cereza, but he is in fact the cause of the apparently mysterious blast that appears on the airport at the end of the previous chapter, where his model was left out by mistake. When Sapientia catches up with Valkyrie, the lack of control of Jeanne and constant reminding of their objective causes Jeanne to lash out at him, forcing him off the plane to confront Bayonetta personally. However, Sapienta (whether accidental or not is unknown) shot a fireball at the ship, causing it to fall into the ocean with him. He is seen again after the plane crashes into the ocean, damaged beyond repair. A helicopter flown by Luka rescues Cereza, leaving Bayonetta behind. Moments later, Sapientia appears out of the water, challenging her to battle. Bayonetta proceeds to use a panel from the airplane as an impromptu surfboard to fight him. After wounding him, Bayonetta summons Phantasmaraneae. Sapientia notices his danger and attempts to flee, but is stopped by Bayonetta, who proceeds to force him toward Phantasmaraneae using Madama Butterfly. After repeated attacks from Phantasmaraneae, Sapientia creates a vortex in the ocean, leading to one last fight in the whirlpool. Upon his defeat, Bayonetta summons a giant Phantasmaraneae, which sucks Sapientia further down the vortex. He struggles to escape, but is drawn in by Phantasmaraneae's breath. He falls onto a spider web and proceeds to have his body ripped apart by Phantasmaraneae's children. In his last moments, he laughs at Bayonetta, considering her clueless. He is then taken into the depths of Inferno. Prudence Sapientia's clone appears before Bayonetta in an elevator shaft of the Ithavol building shortly after she destroys Justice, and is the last clone fought in the game. He uses a different tactic to fighting her, but is defeated nonetheless, after being defeated he will fall off the side of the building and be impaled by several sun arch spikes near the elevator shaft. Instead of two sets of three rocket launchers on his haunches, he has two sets of one. Additionally, he only fires them when you are quite far away. Description Sapientia is an angel of high order, sent to combat Bayonetta. His appearance is that of an armored dragon at first, though toward the battle's end, his horns and wings are destroyed, and he takes on the appearance of an oversized reptile. He also has porcelain faces on his legs and a face on his main head, near his bottom chin. His face parts seems reversed, as his "eye" near his chin, while his mouth located on his forehead. Like most of the powerful angels, he is adorned with lustrous metals and jewels. Strangely, his metallic appearance is never lost, as usually the angels reveal musculature when they are seriously wounded; but he retains his machine-like appearance, even after Bayonetta dismembers him. He also has turning silver fans on his flat joints (beneath his halos), and two silver turbines on his neck. Prudence, like his other cardinal clone companions, is colored silver and green compared to his template cardinal Sapientia, the wings on his back a more curled and smaller, he lacks horns near his head, smaller crown, has no human faces on his legs, and his silver fans and turbines seems not active. His legs also host only one rocket gun launcher compared to Sapientia's two guns per leg. Abilities He is a fearsome beast whose natural element is that of water. Not only is he a powerful swimmer, but he can float on water, his mass notwithstanding, and can generate a vortex the size of a soccer field in the water, drawing his prey to the bottom. He can also use a variety of energy blasts from various tendrils (including, on close inspection, rocket launchers just in front of his tail) and can shoot fire from the faces that are attached to his legs. Finally, he will attempt to devour Bayonetta either by swimming underneath her and lunging upwards or leaping clear out of the water in the manner of a shark. Strategy *See the main article Mythology *Sapientia represents the element of Water. *His name comes from the word sapience, which means "to have judgement". The English word "sapient", which means "showing wisdom and judgement", is also derived from the same word. As its title "cardinal virtue of prudence" suggests, it's based on this virtue. Trivia *The tentacles that come out from his neck are similar to the Plagas that erupt from the Majini from Resident Evil 5. *He is the only Auditio that has no forward-facing face or eyes, except armor that covers most of his head. In addition, his "actual" face is covered by a sheet in his "chin". And even that is based loosely on a knight helmets. **Also, if one look closely to his upper chin, one can found an ship cockpit on it, suggesting if Sapientia might be an living vehicle like Irenic or Kinship. *Initial designs had Sapientia appear clearly as the cause of the blast on the airport right before Bayonetta, Luka and Cereza get on the plane, but game creators forgot about adding his model to the scene until after it was too late to add anything new to it. Hideki Kamiya shares in his commentary that he wished to add at least an audio cue to hint that Sapientia was present, but this was also impossible. *During the cutscene before Verse 8, or when he accompanying Jeanne on a Valkyria Aircraft, he talks to her without open his mouth, even when he screams after Jeanne repeatly stomping his upper chin. But when he falls and fire an fireball to Valkyria's wing, he open his mouth. *As The Cardinal Virtue of Prudence, he must do everything wisely and appreciate other people. However, he seems very arrogant and always insults Bayonetta, even after being ripped apart. *He is the first Angel who can speak from an animal head. Gallery Auditio 4.jpg|As seen in the Book of Angels SapientiaIntroduction.png|Sapientia's introduction during the game. SapientiaGallery.png|Sapientia in the boss model gallery. PrudenceGallery2.png|Prudence in the angel model gallery. Category:Characters Category:Auditio Category:Bayonetta Category:Angels Category:Bosses